A PARCEL GLAZED TERRACOTTA BUST OF THE VIRGIN

Details

A PARCEL GLAZED TERRACOTTA BUST OF THE VIRGIN
FLORENTINE, FIRST QUARTER OF THE 16TH CENTURY, WORKSHOP OF LUCA DELLA ROBBIA THE YOUNGER

Truncated at the upper arm, the draped Madonna gazing downward, her face and hair unglazed, wearing a pale blue scarf reversing to green and a deep blue and manganese tunic--16 5/8 in. (42.2 cm.) high, on velvet-covered wood plinth (velvet worn)

Provenance

Stanley Mortimer, Roslyn, New York
By descent through the family

Literature

A. Marquand, Della Robbias in America, Princeton, NJ, 1912, 1972 reprint, p. 167-168, no. 71

Lot Essay

The present bust, a replica of a similar bust in the collection of The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD, may be from the workshop of Luca della Robbia the Younger (b. 1475-1548?). Cf. G. Gentilini,
I della Robbia: la scultura invetriata nel Rinascimento, Florence, 1992, pp. 331, 338, 346, 347, 348 for illustrations of similar partially gazed pieces attributed to him. In particular, the head of the figure of the Madonna from a large lunette of The Madonna and Child with Saint James the Less and Saint John in San Mauro, Signa is similar in pose and expression to the present example.